


Golden Dandelions

by xiiaeo



Category: NCT (Band), SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Eternal Lovers, Finding each other again, M/M, Past Lives, Soulmates, based on a song (how surprising), copious dandelions, of sorts, seokjae, seokmin is an artist, soft, soft edition, what almay wants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-25 10:31:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20375305
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xiiaeo/pseuds/xiiaeo
Summary: He didn’t ask what was wrong, it became apparent that nothing was, and Jaehyun wrapped gentle fingers around the wrist of the hand cradling his face, profound affinity displayed in his smile, “Now I get to love you all over again.”





	Golden Dandelions

**Author's Note:**

> i managed to shackle soonyoung up in my brain so that i could write some seokjae without his intrusion ://
> 
> i wrote this in a few hours today after listening to the song and writing a short plan yesterday, then sleeping on it. i highly suggest you listen to the song because it's very atmospheric, it inspired this fic and i love it very much <3 i have wips for five other songs on that same album,,,,i just really love the album <33
> 
> now enjoy some soft seokjae!!
> 
> [mood board](https://twitter.com/xiiaeo/status/1165318942321205249?s=20)
> 
> Golden Dandelions - Barns Courtney ☆ [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/5vdNoFezjTsQTrZxPK8tDg?si=2m2KtY8zTp2L5vZdIhvyoQ) ☆ [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlsqezaSTzg)

━☆ﾟ.*･｡ﾟ

Seokmin bowed to his last guests as they turned to quit the room, rising back up to crane his neck to the side with a palm on his nape, sighing when his bones popped in relief. The exhibition had gone better than he could’ve imagined, and he’d made far more networking connections than he would have dared dream of, but that didn’t mean the fatigue of social interaction managed to escape him, not to mention to dull throb in the soles of his feet. 

He had done everything himself, from the painting to the framing to readying the refreshments table, at which he was presently stalking towards, and had only received a hand in what was probably the most important factor - getting people to show up. Seokmin has never been one to ride on anyone else’s coat tails, no matter how far they would willingly drag him along, but he was not opposed to accepting friendly generosity. Minghao, who Seokmin has been friends with for years, had already established himself in the art world, and promoted Seokmin’s exhibit at no cost to himself or the other painter, asking nothing in return, only that the older stop his endless expressions of gratitude.

Icy water flowed down Seokmin’s throat in desperate gulps, ceasing only when the cup from which he drank turned up empty and he stared to its base in contempt, lowering it to the table when he felt eyes on him from the side. Stood with his body at first pointed toward a piece, the man, no older than Seokmin himself, turned to be facing the artist, last light of the evening sun streaming through his auburn locks in a soft haze, casting feeble shadows across friendly eyes.

Seokmin’s lips parted involuntarily in wonder as the other crossed the room to stand before him, abandoning the acrylic painting of a star speckled sky to extend a hand, “Jaehyun.”

“Seokmin,” the artist accepted the hand, breath knocked out of him at the familiarity of the deep cadence.

“I know,” Jaehyun smiled, dimpled crevices making a home out of his cheeks as they each lost their grip on the other, “I wanted to ask you about a painting?”

“Oh! Of course,” Seokmin set himself out of the mesmerised lean he was in, “Which one?”

“Golden Dandelions,” Jaehyun led the way around the exhibition, Seokmin trailing close behind him and straightening out his crisp white button up.

The artist hadn’t a clue what to wear as the host of such an event but Minghao had informed him that a casually smart attire would suffice, seeing to it that Seokmin wore his shirt untucked, sleeves rolled up, and had jeans hugging his legs from thighs to ankles, where polished dress shoes completed the outfit.

Jaehyun, on the other hand, wore a loose suit of grey and a blue cotton jumper as his inner layer, decorated with images of greenery and tucked into his slacks, which were in turn held up by what appeared to be a white rope serving as a belt before it looped through the buttonhole in the blazer, tied in a knot. He wore a gold chain around his neck and yet it did not clash with the thick silver bands nestled against his knuckles.

They came to a stop before the large canvas, Seokmin gently taking Jaehyun’s arm to pull him a few paces back so that they may appreciate the blending of colours better, “What did you want to ask?”

“Who is the person?”

Seokmin was stunned into momentary silence. Most of the canvas was filled with valiant dandelions, losing their petals in a battle with the summer wind, and twirling around each other to stay rooted to the earth. A sliver of the night sky streamed across the top quarter of the landscape, deep black offset by clusters of swirled white stars, and an orange glow seeped through the stems courtesy of an out of frame lightsource flickering in the night. Seokmin drew in a breath, “You can see them?”

He had almost given up on this piece numerous times, unable to get the proportions right, hating the positioning and the uncertain perspective. Before he’d covered them with the flower bed, a person lay amongst the foliage, basking under the starlight, but Seokmin could not place an expression upon the blank face no matter how many times he tried.

They wore robes of azure silk, golden embroidery painted to the finest stray thread, and had not a single strand of raven hair out of place, all positioned by Seokmin’s delicate touch. Their arms sought to reach towards the spectator but he could make the angle work, and so they had never been given forearms, much less hands. The curl of their lips was a mystery and their eyes evaded him, their cheekbones rose and fell repeatedly as he attempted to give them the right sharpness, but he didn’t know what he was aiming for.

Pooled dimples were the only feature with which he sculpted with certainty, remaining unchanged throughout the whole process, only to be covered by a horde of vibrant dandelions along with the rest of the figure; Seokmin unwilling to rid himself of the painting entirely, or to start over.

“Vaguely,” Jaehyun raised a finger to point and trace the rough outline in the air, “Am I not supposed to?”

“Not really,” Seokmin smiled sheepishly, amazed that the other could see the subject when even he himself forgot about it on occasion, “I don’t know who it is.”

“Why did you cover them up?” Jaehyun inquired, gaze switching from the hanging frame to the artist, who was suddenly fixated upon his own piece.

“I couldn’t get them to look right,” Seokmin narrowed his eyes at the painting, wondering if it was actually apparent that someone was hidden amongst the flowers.

“How did you know that they didn’t look right, if you didn’t even know who they are?”

Seokmin turned to look at the inquisitor, affronted by the question, and found an odd fondness in the other’s countenance, “I don’t know...They just looked wrong to me no matter how I outlined them. I regret ever having painted the body before finishing sketching the face, but I think part of me knew I’d never be able to finish it.”

“Shame,” Jaehyun muttered, “I would’ve liked to have seen it before you painted over it.”

Seokmin smiled, wordless, each of them knowing that there was no possibility of that happening, lest the artist had a progress photo stashed somewhere in his phone. Calm silence settled between them as the ever present hum of traffic flowed in through open windows, mingling with the light of a young moon. Seokmin snapped out of his stupor and walked back to the refreshments table, leaving Jaehyun to cast one last look at the painting before following him and politely declining the offer of a drink, “I best be on my way.”

“Me too,” Seokmin nodded after checking the time on a silver watch, sliding his phone off of the table and into his pocket, “I’ll show you out?”

“I’d like that,” Jaehyun said with a lazy stretch of the lips.

Seokmin returned the expression and prowled around the other to fetch his coat from the back of a chair, folding it over his forearm and holding the wooden door with its embedded glass panels open wide, “After you.”

Jaehyun quirked an eyebrow in amusement at the chivalry and waited in the corridor for Seokmin to twist a small key in the lock, “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Seokmin led them down the corridor to the short staircase that would take them back to the ground floor, “Have I met you before?”

“Maybe,” Jaehyun eluded the details with a well placed shrug of the shoulders, “It’s a small world, after all.”

The vagueness of the response irked Seokmin but he couldn’t bring himself to do more than hum in agreement as they reached level ground, gently steering Jaehyun to the exit and having the door held open for him this time, “Thank you.”

“Don’t mention it,” Jaehyun repeated with a slight cheek, silhouetted by the hanging moon as the door swung to a close behind him, “You’ve always been an amazing painter.”

Seokmin stopped in his tracks at the sudden compliment, noticing that Jaehyun had ceased to follow him and was simply stood outside the building, “Thank you?”

“It  _ is _ a compliment,” Jaehyun laughed slightly at the confusion in the artist’s voice.

“Thank you,” Seokmin reiterated with more weight to his words, smiling at the melody falling from oddly familiar lips, “I just wasn’t expecting it.”

“The exhibition is open again tomorrow, right?” Jaehyun asked despite knowing the answer, turning to walk down the pavement instead of joining Seokmin in descending the steps to the car park, “I’ll see you then.”

“Wait,” Seokmin called out, failing to notice how the other had already halted his motion before the word was uttered, as if anticipating its presence, “I’ll drive you home? It’s getting dark.”

He had no idea why he felt compelled to extend the offer to the stranger, or why he felt anxious at the thought of a refusal. His worries were cut short when Jaehyun pivoted on the spot and took grateful strides towards him, daring to ask in a soothing tone, “Could I drive you somewhere instead?”

Seokmin dropped the keys into his hand without question, pointing out his car amongst the few remaining and leading the way with a warm curiosity blanketing his sense of reason. Jaehyun slid into the car like it was his own, and Seokmin basked in his company like it lifted the trivial stresses of life from his very shoulders.

They joined the stream of traffic in comfortable silence, each lost in their own thoughts of a golden painting, and yet seeing the same scene from different perspectives. Seokmin looked at the flowers crushed under the faceless person with pity, but wouldn’t have it any other way when slender fingers extended towards him in an impatient beckon. Jaehyun gazed at a sky of endless stars, view obstructed only by the head of a man with a line of charcoal streaked across his cheek.

After a short journey that ended in pulling off of the main road to turn down a few side streets, Jaehyun parked the car and turned to Seokmin’s inquisitive eyes, “I want to show you something.”

Seokmin had never unbuckled his seat belt so fast as to follow the other out of the vehicle and over to a wire wound fence, trapped in an awed trance when he spotted the patch of dandelions growing through the dusty gravel in the remnants of what was once the foundation for a building.

Jaehyun trailed a hand along the wire as he walked along its length to an unsuspecting gate, of which he had procured the key to its padlock. He let himself in with Seokmin feeling obliged to follow until they were stood next to the flowers, and then Jaehyun turned his back on them, facing the artist, “Lay me down.”

Seokmin’s gaze faltered at the request but soon found purchase in the assurance in Jaehyun’s eyes, urging him to comply with the moon as their witness. He didn’t hesitate after his initial reluctance, wrapping an arm around Jaehyun’s waist and clasping a hand on the back of his neck while a loose hold was secured around his own, the pair each lowering themselves to the ground to aid the other like they’d done it countless times before.

A dandelion poked up through the space above Jaehyun’s shoulder once he was lying down, tickling his cheek and making his eye flutter shut at the feeling. Seokmin brought a hand to caress the side of his face, hiding the petals under his knuckles, and exhaling softly when Jaehyun leaned his head into the touch, “Can I kiss you?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Jaehyun sighed in relief, pulling Seokmin the rest of the way down to close the gap between their lips.

Their eyes slipped shut in the soft darkness and Seokmin felt his body relax in the serenity it provided, contentment overruling rationality. Jaehyun’s hands slipped up his neck to tangle deft fingers into his locks, sending a pleasant shiver down his spine. The dull roar of traffic came to an abrupt halt, prompting Seokmin to end their kiss with furrowed brows. When he opened his eyes to the features that he could not remember, he sat up in breathless wonder, kneeling over the once faceless man’s lap.

As far as he could see in the darkness, nothing but fields of green surrounded them as they lay in the bed of weeds, flickering lantern perched on a rock to Seokmin’s left, abandoned sketch to his right on a weathered piece of parchment. He glanced up at the clear sky, no longer obstructed by high-rise buildings or polluted with an orange glow, and instead displaying all the grandeur of the heavens in a sea of light.

Seokmin looked down at his own attire and found himself wearing traditional garments, white in their entirety save for black smudges on their sleeves that continued onto his palms which he held out in a slight shake, eyes focusing past them when ring littered digits wrapped around his fingers in a gentle hold.

Jaehyun lay in the dandelions, donning blue silks with golden embroidery, a placid smile on his face as he linked their fingers together and lowered them to rest on his stomach, “You’ve got charcoal on your face.”

Seokmin stared down at him in silence, eyes raking over long dark locks that splayed around his head in the grass, replacing the short brown strands he sported at the exhibition. Jaehyun loosened his grip on one of Seoknin’s hands to reach up and beckon him closer, the latter gasping in surprise when his own hair hung long past his face as Jaehyun traced a line on his cheek with a pointed finger, showing the now black tip to the artist, “See?”

The realisation hit Seokmin as he leaned over the other, “I loved you.”

Jaehyun smiled, both hands reaching to pull him closer, “A thousand times.”

Seokmin kissed the other as a longing rooted so deep in him that he didn’t even know he had it, unearthed itself, sprouted a stem and stretched up to an endless sky, petals blowing away in the breeze. Their lip lock deepened as the moon rolled over the horizon, replaced by the sun, then reappeared again, the two locked in battle for dominion of the heavens.

The artist twitched when a sudden rain pelted him, Jaehyun’s hands keeping him in place and silently willing him to keep his eyes closed as the storm passed, sounds of cattle following shortly. A shadow cast over them with the rolling of a horse and cart and the wind was blocked with the founding of a village, souls entwined through the ages. The metallic ringing of swords scraped to a halt with the blunt shot of guns, no room for artistry in their execution.

With the intrusion of concrete slabs, electricity and abrupt screeching of automated machinery, Seokmin jumped in Jaehyun’s arms, but the latter clung to him desperately as they withdrew to stare at each other, history swirling around them in a blur neither dared to glance at. Seokmin barely registered the constant change of Jaehyun’s attire, the slow receding of his hair to a shorter style, too lost in his eyes to risk losing them to the passage of time again.

They each heaved for breath when they arrived, lying in the clearing surrounded by high rise structures as traffic continued to flow nearby, dandelions familiar under the same moonlight. Seokmin’s eyes widened in concern when a singular tear raced down Jaehyun’s face, halted in its tracks when he reached out to brush it away with his knuckles. He didn’t ask what was wrong, it became apparent that nothing was, and Jaehyun wrapped gentle fingers around the wrist of the hand cradling his face, profound affinity displayed in his smile, “Now I get to love you all over again.”

｡ﾟ･.*☆ﾟ━

**Author's Note:**

> this has not been beta read so i apologise for any mistakes/lack of clarity!! but thank you for reading!! a kudos would be much appreciated and a comment would mean the world, no matter the length!! <3
> 
> [breathtaking art by the amazing almay](https://twitter.com/lovefoolthatsme/status/1165701137275727878?s=20) <3 jaehyun has been waiting in the dandelions for so long that he's seen them bloom and wilt countless times :')
> 
> ☆ [hmu on twitter! @xiiaeo](https://twitter.com/xiiaeo) ☆


End file.
